We seldom repent of speaking little, very often of speaking too much: a vulgar and trite maxim, which all the world knows and, but which all the world does not practice

The events we most desire do not happen; or, if they do, it is neither in the time nor in the circumstances when they would have given us extreme pleasure.

A well-born man is fortunate, but so is the man about whom people no longer ask, 'is he well-born?'

We all covet wealth, but not its perils.

There is nothing which continues longer than a moderate fortune; nothing of which one sees sooner the end than a large fortune.

Every hour in itself, as it respects us in particular, is the only one we can call our own.

It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to speak well nor enough sense to hold their tongues; this is the root of all impertinence.